Information Sources for the European Union

I have recently changed job within Aberdeen City Libraries and now work for Europe Direct Information Centre - Aberdeen. My focus is now on providing an information service about the European Union that is relevant to the local population. We are one of three Europe Direct's in Scotland and we have a network which spans the rest of the EU.

As part of my role I am going to be running some classes on how to find out about information on the EU and the best resources to use. The classes are aimed at an adult audience and will be run in a community library. I am currently working on developing a class "Travelling in the EU"  which includes how to find reliable information about EU countries and what you can do there, how to apply for an EHIC card and where to find information about your passenger and consumer rights. I want the class to be as interactive as possible and am struggling to think of an interesting challenge based around consumer and passenger rights which has the participants looking and searching the relevant sources previously highlighted to them. Anyone have any bright ideas? 

Once delivered I hope to be able to share the slides with everyone. 

CILIPS Autumn Gathering 2013: October 10th

Email out from the CILIP in Scotland Team to say that booking is now open for this year's CILIP Autumn Gathering at the John McIntyre Conference Centre, Edinburgh. It looks like a great programme / line up

This year is all about Education and Inspiration and the programme contains three main strands:

• Digital and Information Literacies
• School Libraries
• Professional Development

The keynote speakers reflect this diversity as we have Barbara Band (CILIP Vice President), Liz McGettigan (Head of Edinburgh Libraries) and Simon Finch (Northern Grid).

Other sessions offer a choice for delegates and include a debate on e-books, a session on using social media effectively, school library best practice 'shout-outs', a case study of CPD 23, some best practice examples of information literacy projects, tips on how to deliver an elevator pitch, discussion about the new CILIP Professional Knowledge and Skills Base and school library research.

The early bird price for CILIPS members is only £55 so book now

#CILIPSAG13

Lifelong Learning: how music, language and art make you smarter

Thanks to Lisa Jenkins for contacting me about graphics she helped create about the benefits of lifelong learning through music and language learning.

I like the look of the graphics as they get the message over well and I also liked the visual image of:

Fresh information acts as a protein shake, forging new pathways and recoating those that are weak. Plus, with practice, these pathways get even stronger.

I'm a great believer in lifelong learning and I certainly found learning a language "challenges my brain to make new connections". The challenge continues when you then go to use the language for example on holiday and have to dig deep to find the right words.

So I'm off to "challenge my brain to make new connections".

IL Umbrella 2013 presentations

I didn't manage to attend Umbrella but looking at the IL presentations on the website it is great to see some from different aspects as listed below including one from Bill Johnston's who is a member of the Scottish Community of Practice:

• Helping citizens develop their own information literacy curriculum for lifelong learning Sheila Webber, Senior Lecturer, Information School, University of Sheffield & Bill Johnston, Honorary Research Fellow, Strathclyde University, Scotland  
• Information counselling: helping communities visualise and optimise their informational environments Andrew Whitworth, Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester
• Championing Information Literacy to the Royal Navy  Peter Barr, College Librarian, Britannia Royal Naval College
• Using Twitter to create an interactive information literacy lecture  Suzanne Tatham, Teaching & Learning Support Librarian, University of Sussex  
• Are librarians delivering good practice in information literacy for postgraduates in UK Higher Education? Charlie Inskip, Project Officer, Research Information Network / SCONUL  
• Legal Information Literacy Statement Emily Allbon, Law Librarian, City University London
• A critical approach to information literacy  Lauren Smith, PhD Research Student, The University of Strathclyde  
• Information prescriptions: personalised information through libraries and information services Ruth Carlyle, Acting Head of Information, Financial & Work Support / Information & Support Policy Lead, Macmillan Cancer Support

Other presentations can be accessed from the Umbrella 2013 presentations website

Earliest texts to mention the term 'information literacy'

Thanks to Drew Whitworth, University of Manchester's LIS-INFOLITERACY@jiscmail.ac.uk mailing

Lee G Burchinal's "The Communications Revolution" (1976): new digitised copy of text with commentary

To facilitate further scholarship into the origins of 'information literacy' -- as an idea and a practical project -- I have digitised the text of the speech and presented it online, with the permission of both Texas A & M University and Professor Burchinal himself. I have also added a commentary, assessing its contribution to the field and comparing it to Zurkowski's 1974 paper. I am also happy to say that Prof Burchinal answered a few of my questions by email and his observations have also been included in the commentary

The Communications Revolution by Lee G Burchinal: edited and with an introduction by A. Whitworth : http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/drew.whitworth/burchinal.html

Good luck with the new book Radical Information Literacy (forthcoming 2014).